Journal #27 Emily Dickinson tune

Emily Dickinson was raised and pressured to be a Christian by her family. She had a deep respect for the Bible, but she basically refused to conform directly to Christianity. She had different religious ideas throughout her life, and many times there were Christian ideas involved. She waffled between different religious ideas, so it makes sense that Amazing Grace, or other hymnal songs, would be common tune in her poems. Amazing Grace has the obvious religious background and theme, but it also represents an idea of hope, although it is mostly a hope in God, which was prevalent in many of Emily Dickinson's poems. It is like she contradicts herself by using this song at the same time. By using this tune, she would be saying that God's grace saved her, but she could be believing in a different god that is not the Christian God. It is a very interesting thing to use this tune, or really any tune for that matter, over many poems. As the song says: "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me..." She is saved by God's grace, but it is her God, which can be the typical Christian God, or anything different that she has formed in her own mind and ideas. She could be talking about either God, and, since she is not alive any longer, it is not really possible to know which one she was talking about. Basically she has her own religious feelings and interpretations that could be her own thing or a specifically different combination of Christian morals and ideas with her own. Amazing Grace is a typical religiously based song, so her use of it could just be significant because she was strongly religious. She interprets Amazing Grace the way that she wants to, and she uses it to coincide with her own works of poetry. Emily Dickinson's use of the song Amazing Grace has its own implications, which can also have different interpretations by those who read her poems.